Sunday, April 09, 2006

Dallas Protests: It Just Takes One...

Chief Kunkle attributed the peaceful nature of the protest to the work of the volunteers and organizers, as well as police efforts to marginalize the small groups of counterprotesters.

“Even I’m surprised about the nature of the crowd. I think the people have been educated to ignore the other protesters,” he said.

Later in the same story...

Miles Walters, 16, a sophomore at Richardson High School, said he was scared when people started throwing water bottles and hunkered under a building for protection. “I wasn’t expecting it to be this bad,” he said. “Because we take pride in our country they hate us and call us racist.”

Thank goodness they were so peaceful?

And of course the occasional idiot will wander into this sort of thing...

Said Saniyyah Rounds, a 22-year-old black student from the University of Texas at Arlington: “A lot of black people don’t think this is their problem. What they don’t realize is that this is a problem for all minorities. We can’t segregate ourselves. We can’t hold ourselves as different form Hispanics.”

And of course the obligatory Mexican racism...

Although the stars and stripes predominated, some people opted to paint themselves in red, white and green, the colors of the Mexican flag. A girl no older than 6 had her shirt painted: “Hell, no, we won’t go. Mexicans stick together.”

A little "what the hell?"

About 12:30 p.m., Dallas police were checking on an unconfirmed report of a pickup truck spotted carrying six Klan members wearing robes.

What would the day be without an American representative pandering to foreign nationals...

“I think it’s a great deal,” Sen. West said of the march. “The question is if this is the beginning of a coalition that will make some changes.”

This isn't helpful...

Near City Hall, more than 100 chanting protesters broke off from the main march and headed toward another group of counterprotesters. Police moved in around the counterprotesters, some of whom had hurled plastic water bottles at the large procession.

Spontaneous?

Organizers from the League of United Latin American Citizens were emphatic — some said even heavy-handed — about protesters carrying the Stars and Stripes. But the message seemed to take hold, as thousands were carrying the U.S. flags Sunday morning.

Cui Bono?

Anna Pallasa, 27, of Southlake and her cousin, Maria Quintero, a 23-year-old North Lake College student, said they were asked to help pass out hundreds of small U.S. flags on sticks and white T-shirts. By midmorning, they already had given away 200 flags and 400 shirts. The shirts were touting the office Roy Petty, an immigration lawyer.